RNS reports: More than 2 million worshippers, pilgrims and onlookers poured around an 11-inch wooden figure of the Virgin Mary as it made its way through the streets. A crush of the faithful heaved and hauled away at a rope that stretched over a thousand feet from the cart that bore the beloved statue, dragging [Read More…]

Here’s a glimpse at part of the Catholic Church that will be welcoming the pope this week, from CNN: It looks like an airport hangar and it sounds like a rock concert. Thousands have packed into a megachurch on the periphery of Sao Paulo for one of Father Marcelo Rossi’s Thursday night masses. The Roman [Read More…]

Robert Moynihan describes a “joyful encounter” in the Domus Santa Marta: This morning, as the hot July sun was just beginning to rise over Rome, something extraordinary happened. Wearing a bicycle helmet and black-and-purple bicycle gloves, a black-haired young man from Porto Alegre, Brazil — the country where the Pope will meet next week with [Read More…]

Details from Reuters: When televangelist Silas Malafaia gathered 40,000 followers outside Brazil’s Congress this week, it wasn’t just to raise their arms to the sky and praise the Lord. The rally was a show of support for lawmakers who oppose abortion and same-sex marriage and a message to other politicians that they should not ignore Brazil’s fast-growing evangelical churches if [Read More…]

Details: One of Brazil’s most famous priests has inaugurated a massive new Roman Catholic church that will hold about 20,000 worshippers when complete. A mass was celebrated Friday in Sao Paulo to inaugurate the Mother of God sanctuary. It’s been in construction for more than six years, and it will take several more to finish. [Read More…]

Some answers and analysis, from the International Business Times: At least 1 million evangelical Christians took part in Saturday’s annual “March for Jesus” in Sao Paulo, demonstrating the growing trend of Protestantism in Brazil. With 123.2 million of 191 million Brazilians identifying as Catholic according to 2010 census data, the South American nation still holds [Read More…]

The numbers are dwindling, according to this report: Catholic numbers in Brazil strongly declined among all classes in recent years, according to a study released as Rio de Janeiro is slated to host the Catholic World Youth Day in July 2013. Published Wednesday in local media, the results of the “New Map of Religions,” a [Read More…]